Intermediate products, in this context, are materials, compounds and semi-finished products. End-products are component parts, parts, which must not be further formed for their end-use. They can be assembled to a functional device.
In the plastics industry it is a common procedure to improve the characteristic profiles of the known polymers by blending (compounding) of additives such as fillers and additives.
Polymer compounds consist of at least two phases, one of these phases is an inorganic material. The inorganic phase is surrounded from an organic phase. This organic phase is called binder, resin or more general polymer matrix.
Compounds in terms of this invention are two-component-systems, respectively multi-component systems with one organic phase, which is called the matrix, an different other phases (called addition-phase), which are immiscible during compounding or during use. The phase boundaries could be compatibilized with a coupling agent or they can be modified with an inter-phase.
From EP 1 340 788 A2 for example, is the preparation of a compound known based on a thermoplastic material. As will be described in this document, are thermoplastics, for example polyvinyl chloride, with a crosslinking agent, a stabilizer, chalk as an filler and an alkylbenzophenone processed as a radical former to a workable compound. After molding, in this extrusion, the polymer is crosslinked by irradiation with UV light. The fillers are merely physically incorporated into the thermoplastic and have only a filling function. After this standard crosslinking procedure the thermoplastic material has lost his thermoplastic properties.